


I'm Not Stuck, I Live Here

by ShivaeSyke



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Cute Kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23671891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShivaeSyke/pseuds/ShivaeSyke
Summary: Marianne goes in search of a primrose petal to take to school with her but finds something far more interesting in the great thorn wall that separates the Dark Forest from the Fairy Lands.
Relationships: Bog King & Marianne (Strange Magic)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	I'm Not Stuck, I Live Here

**Author's Note:**

> The first section is this week's Strange Magic Monday Prompt by RadioactivePeasant on tumblr. I took it from there.

Marianne hiked down the side of the ridge, glancing back occasionally to see if anyone was following her. So far, the coast was clear. Marianne frowned and narrowed her eyes. She didn't trust the quiet.

Marianne would have flown, but her bright purple wings were rather eye-catching. Instead, she tucked her wings closer to her body and followed the scent of primroses. Almost there.

A vast wall of thorns divided the forest from the fields. Marianne felt her first real twinge of misgiving as she stared up at the forbidding sight. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...

The little princess shook herself and clenched her fists. "I am not a scaredy-caterpillar," she whispered fiercely to herself. "I'll show Peaseblossom and Mustardseed!"

All she had to do was steal one primrose petal and bring it to school. How hard could it be?

Something moved beyond the wall of thorns, barely visible. Marianne decided to hurry up. Not because she was scared, of course.  
*  
Bog grumbled, taking a moment to make sure he was alone. His mother and father were a few trees away, overseeing enough goblins that they didn’t notice their son sneaking away from them. Morning in the spring meant harvesting mushrooms and herbs, with his mother barking out orders for what to gather and teaching the younger goblins how to correctly pick different kinds of herbs without destroying the plant as well as making sure not to take all the mushrooms so they could spore.

It. Was. Boring.

Worse, his father was there this morning, hovering around his mother in an embarrassingly touchy mood. The constant flirting between his parents was disgusting. However, it was another distraction that allowed Bog to wander.

As the Prince of the Dark Forest, he knew their kingdom from one end to the other, so his parents wouldn’t worry about him if he was out of sight for a short period of time.

Bog’s wings trembled as he crept to the wall of thorns looming far overhead. He just wanted a peek, to worm his way into the thorns enough to glimpse the verdant fields he knew were on the other side. Fields full of flowers and beautiful fairies, sunlight and warmth.

Just a glimpse.

No one would see him.

Bog’s bright blue eyes fixed on a sure path, making sure the gap would be big enough to squeeze through and accommodate his armored shoulders. Every other part of him would make it easy to get into the thorns, but getting back out would be tricky if he wasn’t careful.

One more glance back, and he made up his mind, slipping through the opening and into the thick twining vines. The thorns scraped over his thick armored plating harmlessly, and in his eagerness, he went a little too far too fast, making more noise than he intended.  
*   
Marianne froze where she stood, her wings slowly rising behind her, close together. She took another step closer to the overwhelming scent of the primroses. There was likely a break in the thorns. The wall of winding thorn studded vines wasn't impassable, it was more of a visual boundary. After all, a fairy could easily fly over the top of it at the thickest points.

There were openings in the forbidding wall, here and there. It was in those openings that the primroses grew.

Another step.

Then came the boy's voice, swearing in an unfamiliar accent, in three different languages. The vines shook where she saw the movement for a brief moment. Then the growling began. Now the voice was muttering to himself, a voice that broke and squeaked, sounding very much like some of the older boys Marianne went to school with.

She listened, her wings slowly dropping. There was a choice to be made. She could continue on her way, dart into an opening into the dark forest, or see if some boy had followed her and was now stuck in the thorns. That didn't seem likely. How would they have ended up where she couldn't see them If they started on the same side of the bushes?

The thorns shook again in the same spot, trembling briefly, then rustling as though something was stuck inside. A piercing yelp filled the air, making Marianne cringe. One of her classmates or something else, whatever it was, appeared to be in a predicament. She turned, lowering her wings to creep closer to the thorn wall to investigate.  
*   
A simple miscalculation ended in Bog's foot slipping down a smooth green vine. He tipped forward at an angle, his pauldrons catching on a supple vine, sliding down to end up with thorns catching both sides of his armored shoulders between them. His mother would have chided him for the language that erupted from his mouth, while his father would have chuckled and applauded him for his pronunciation.

Bog found himself suspended between the thorns and vines, snagged securely in place. He wriggled one way, then another, attempting to get back through the vines. The only way out, was literally, out, to the other side of the thorn wall.

Rays of light pierced through from the other side, revealing how close he was to the outer wall. Bog growled, unable to accept his only way out was into the field on the other side. He wasn't afraid, he told himself, it was an unnecessary risk. Twisting, keeping his wings tight against his back, Bog put both hands on a vine and pushed, attempting to get enough space to turn around. The thorns slipped against his shoulder plates, and he smiled, thinking he might succeed.

Without warning, another vine slid into place, smacking him in the face. Bog lost his hold and footing, the vines seeming to have a mind of their own as they twisted around his body, sending him a little closer to the edge, upside down in the vines.

His situation worsening, Bog fought against the vines, growling, trying to use his claws and teeth to free himself.

"Uhm, how did you get in there like that?" Bog went rigid when a little girl's voice called out from behind him, on the fairy side of the wall. He cringed, holding completely still. This was not good. The vines wiggled behind him. "Hold on. I'll help you!" The vines continued moving, trembling, as Bog's breath came quick.

There was a fairy on the other side of the wall. He hadn't even thought that would be possible. Fairies tended to stay away from the forbidding border, but here one was. Panic spread through Bog, his head was already fuzzy from being upside down.

"Stop helping me! Go away!" He suddenly found his voice, trying to twist around to glare at the fairy.

"Oh, shut up. I have a sharp rock. I can get you out!" the girl's voice grumbled at him, obviously determined to help him.

"No! No!" Bog twisted the other way. "I'm fine! Go away! I live in here!"

The vines stopped moving for a moment. "You look a little big to live in a thorn bush." The little girl's voice held a tone of amusement, then he felt the vine up by his feet wiggle, along with the rest of the vines.

"Don't you dare do that! If I get out of here, I'm going to…" Bog thought for a moment. What was he going to do? Die of embarrassment at being seen by a pretty little fairy? Most likely, yes, that's what he would do. The last thing he wanted was to be seen in the light. "I'm going to eat ye!"

"You don't scare me!" The little fairy girl worked on the vine with the rock, and Bog felt the supple vine begin giving way.  
*   
Taking great care, Marianne managed to wriggle her way into the bush enough to saw through the vines ensnaring the strange fairy boy in the thorn bush. She couldn't see him well, just enough to know that he was boy-shaped, with transparent, glinting wings. And he was upside down. The fact that the boy was upside down took all the fear out of her.

She picked up a flat rock with a jagged edge and went to work. He needed her help, despite trying to make her leave, plus, she was really curious about what sort of fairy was caught in the vines.

"I'm warning ye!" The vine broke, and the boy fell, flopping down on his back with a pained grimace on his sharply lined face. He blinked in the dim light, running a clawed hand over his head, bright blue eyes momentarily meeting her own. She stared for a moment, astonished that the boy looked so different from the ones she knew.

"See, I freed you." Marianne smiled proudly, holding up the rock. Bog just stared at her, a look of shock fixed on his face. Then he turned in one quick movement and attempted to push back through the thorns, only to find his way blocked.

"I could have gotten out on my own," he snorted, running his hands over the vines, wings twitching nervously. The opening was just big enough for him to move around in, but there was no way he could get back through the way he had come. Bog kept his back to Marianne, lowering his head and grimacing. "Leave me alone. Go away."

"My name is Marianne." She tossed the rock aside, stepping back, hoping he would come out so she could get a better look at him. "What's your name?"

"It doesn't matter," he moaned. "Go away, Marianne."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Can you come out?"

"No, I told ye, I live in here," growled Bog, feeling trapped.

"If you lived in there, you wouldn't have gotten stuck!" Marianne giggled.

Bog took a deep breath, turning quickly to jump through the opening, his wings twitching wildly. He shot past the little fairy girl, angling up and over the top of the thorn wall, vanishing over the other side.

Marianne stared after him in awe. He was really tall and thin, and like nothing she had ever seen before. A tiny translucent piece of one of his wings, torn by one of the thorns, drifted down in front of her. Its loss obviously didn't affect his ability to fly, considering how fast he moved. The little fairy girl caught the fragment. It was just a little bigger than her hand and glistened with a rainbow of colors.

Well, it wasn't a primrose petal, but it had a good story behind it, and Marianne was done with this little adventure. She flared her wings and took off down the ridge, not wanting to press her luck any further. She couldn't wait to share her story with Peaseblossom and Mustardseed.  
*   
Bog landed on a tree limb on the other side of the thorn wall, panting and flicking his wings. A fairy saw him. A little fairy. He glanced over his shoulder, holding his wings out. There was a new hole in his upper left wing, and it stung. His mother would notice a hole in his wing immediately, and she would have questions.

With a groan, Bog dropped out of the tree, heading back to where he could hear his mother laughing about something to his father. 

Bog needed to come up with an excuse and quickly. Snagging it on a limb while racing around a tree would suffice. He would get reprimanded for being reckless, but it would be a less stern talking to than if she knew the truth.

For a moment, Bog thought about the little fairy. He had a brief moment to get a good look at her, a little girl with a ruddy appearance, inquisitive brown eyes and an unruly mop of brown, sun-streaked hair. She didn't look like what he expected a fairy to look like, nor did she act like one.

This one was different.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a cute little story. :D


End file.
